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This week, many of my friends will be heading to an inevitably-soggy field in Shepton Mallet for the Soul Survivor youth festival. I’m not going this year (feel my pain), as my heavily-pregnant wife would not be blessed by six days of unassisted bath-times and bedtimes for our three other little smashers. So instead, I’m able to spend the week reflecting on what I’ve previously learned from attending what I’ve found to be a fantastic event.

Last year, I felt God speak to me during the sung worship at the event. I was really enjoying the experience – it’s hard not to when you’re surrounded by 10,000 enthusiastic teenagers, jumping up and down and shouting ‘whoa-oa-oa’ (surely the primal cry of the great psalmists). But what I felt God might be asking me was this: ‘it’s great that you enjoy worshipping me like this… but is this all worship is?’ It gave me pause as I considered that question. Do I just perform acts of worship, or do I live a life of worship?

The spiritual discipline of worship is about making a hundred different choices, every day, to honour and step closer to God, rather than making a movement in the opposite direction. Worship and sin are polar opposites, and as we navigate each day, we choose to point, in everything we do, toward one pole or the other. So this week’s challenge is about developing an awareness of our choices – to either worship God, or ignore and reject him, in the minute details of our day.

33: Worship God this week through the way you live, not just through singing

If you’re at the Soul Survivor festival this week, you might find this challenge particularly helpful – but wherever you are, see it as an opportunity to become more aware of your decisions, and how God might feel about them.

We’d love some guest blogs this week on the subject of worship – beyond singing; if you’d like to write one, please read our writing guidelines, then drop us an email.